I enjoy devouring a good book. Crack that first page open, get hooked in the first 50 pages, and the rest is gobbled up and sucked down before it has a chance to escape my interest. I once heard that you can truly tell when a person is addicted to food when that person has a great meal in front of them and they go into the minutiae of other great meals they have had. I do that with books. And I know some of you do this too. I’m in good company.
Audiobooks have truly expanded not only how many books I read per year but also the types of books I read. I have a few favorite narrators (Dick Hill, Luke Daniels, Barbara Rosenblat, etc.) that I will pick up a book they have narrated even if it is outside my usual genres of scifi, fantasy, and historical fiction. This has lead me to read more modern-day fiction, mysteries, and non-fiction than I would normally.
Between these two facets of my book addiction, I tend to read multiple books at the same time. M3 wonders how I can switch between them with ease (I have little folders in my brain and just switch back and forth as needed). I usually have 3 audiobooks engaged in my life at any one time along with 2-4 paper/ebooks. I like an audiobook in the car, one n the kitchen for the numerous weekly chores, and one on the computer for goofing off to. Lately I have been having fun with read-alongs, but at the slower pace I need another book or two to read in the evenings.
Are you a multiple-book reader? Do we need to start a support club?
Do you think reading multiple books at the same time takes away from the reading experience; as in you would get more out of a book read singly?
I read multiple books at the same time by reading one book from a genre at a time. So I’ll be reading one fantasy book, one mystery book, a book club “literature” book, and a sci-fi book. And lately sprinkling in a nonfiction book. I think it would be more challenging to read several from the same genre at the same time, especially fantasy… having to keep all those names, magic systems, and places straight…
I also break it up by books from different genres. I did have some difficulty keeping track of things while reading two unrelated books by the same author at the same time. I had to put one down and read it later.
At some point I realized I was “reading” 30 books at the same time. That shit had to stop, I wasn’t reading them, of course. Not because I got characters/plots mixed up, but because I’d clean forgotten the necessary details about char/plot by the time I’d cycled back to book 1 after dabbling in the other 29. Now I do two or three books at a time.
I sometimes have more than one book going at a time, usually because I have to interrupt one to get something done with the other on a deadline. My pleasure reading is usually one book at a time and slow. I like to dive into a richly textured book and wring out every detail. Sometimes I do find myself reading along at a blistering pace. It’s a whole different reading experience, and very enjoyable, but, for me, not necessarily better than my usual…